A semiconductor device includes a vertical stack of ring-shaped electrodes that are electrically connected together into a top electrode of a capacitor, on a semiconductor substrate. A bottom electrode of the capacitor is also provided, which extends vertically in a direction orthogonal to a surface of the substrate and through centers of the vertical stack of ring-shaped electrodes. An electrically insulating bottom supporting pattern is provided, which extends between a lowermost one of the ring-shaped electrodes and an intermediate one of the ring-shaped electrodes.

A capacitor structure may include a lower electrode on a substrate, a dielectric layer on the substrate, and an upper electrode on the dielectric layer. The lower electrode may include a metal nitride having a chemical formula of M.sup.1N.sub.y (M.sup.1 is a first metal, and y is a positive real number). The dielectric layer may include a metal oxide and nitrogen (N), the metal oxide having a chemical formula of M.sup.2O.sub.x (M.sup.2 is a second metal, and x is a positive real number). A maximum value of a detection amount of nitrogen (N) in the dielectric layer may be greater than a maximum value of a detection amount of nitrogen (N) in the lower electrode.

A memory is provided which comprises a capacitor including non-linear polar material. The capacitor may have a first terminal coupled to a node (e.g., a storage node) and a second terminal coupled to a plate-line. The capacitors can be a planar capacitor or non-planar capacitor (also known as pillar capacitor). The memory includes a transistor coupled to the node and a bit-line, wherein the transistor is controllable by a word-line, wherein the plate-line is parallel to the bit-line. The memory includes a refresh circuitry to refresh charge on the capacitor periodically or at a predetermined time. The refresh circuit can utilize one or more of the endurance mechanisms. When the plate-line is parallel to the bit-line, a specific read and write scheme may be used to reduce the disturb voltage for unselected bit-cells. A different scheme is used when the plate-line is parallel to the word-line.

The present disclosure provides a method for manufacturing a semiconductor structure and a semiconductor structure. The method for manufacturing a semiconductor structure includes: forming a plurality of capacitor holes on a substrate, and exposing a part of the substrate on bottoms of the capacitor holes; forming a bottom electrode layer on surfaces of the capacitor holes; forming, on a surface of the bottom electrode layer, a dielectric layer continuously covering the surface of the bottom electrode layer; forming a first top electrode layer to continuously cover a surface of the dielectric layer by a first film forming process; by a second film forming process, forming, in a circumferential direction of the capacitor holes, a second top electrode layer continuously covering a surface of the first top electrode layer, and forming, in an axial direction of the capacitor holes.

A noble metal liner and a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor (MIMCAP) are described along with the methods of manufacture or fabrication. The MIM capacitor includes a liner formed of a thin layer or film of a noble metal, which is only a few nanometers thick, e.g., a thickness in the range of about 0.5 nm to about 5 nm or more. In a finished device such as a MIM capacitor, the noble metal liner is sandwiched between a thicker electrode and the insulator, e.g., a layer or thin film of high or ultra high-k material, thereby providing a cap for the electrode to limit leakage currents in the device.

A method of forming a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor with copper top and bottom plates may begin with a copper interconnect layer (e.g., Cu MTOP) including a copper structure defining the capacitor bottom plate. A passivation region is formed over the bottom plate, and a wide top plate opening is etched in the passivation region, to expose the bottom plate. A dielectric layer is deposited into the top plate opening and onto the exposed bottom plate. Narrow via opening(s) are then etched in the passivation region. The wide top plate opening and narrow via opening(s) are concurrently filled with copper to define a copper top plate and copper via(s) in contact with the bottom plate. A first aluminum bond pad is formed on the copper top plate, and a second aluminum bond pad is formed in contact with the copper via(s) to provide a conductive coupling to the bottom plate.

Disclosed herein are IC structures with three-dimensional capacitors with double metal electrodes provided in a support structure (e.g., a substrate, a die, a wafer, or a chip). An example three-dimensional capacitor includes first and second capacitor electrodes and a capacitor insulator between them. Each capacitor electrode includes a planar portion extending across the support structure and one or more via portions extending into one or more via openings in the support structure. The capacitor insulator also includes a planar portion and a via portion extending into the via opening(s). The planar portion of the capacitor electrodes are thicker than the via portions. Each capacitor electrode may be deposited using two deposition processes, such as a conformal deposition process for depositing the via portion of the electrode, and a sputter process for depositing the planar portion of the electrode.

An integrated circuit (IC) device includes a lower electrode including a first metal, a dielectric film on the lower electrode, and a conductive interface layer between the lower electrode and the dielectric film. The conductive interface layer includes a metal oxide film including at least one metal element. An upper electrode including a second metal is opposite the lower electrode, with the conductive interface layer and the dielectric film therebetween. To manufacture an IC device, an electrode including a metal is formed adjacent to an insulating pattern on a substrate. A conductive interface layer including a metal oxide film including at least one metal element is selectively formed on a surface of the electrode. A dielectric film is formed to be in contact with the conductive interface layer and the insulating pattern.

The present disclosure provides a capacitor, a semiconductor device, and a method for preparing a capacitor. The semiconductor device includes a plurality of memory cells, at least one of the memory cells including a capacitor. The capacitor includes a first electrode comprising titanium nitride and disposed on a substrate, a dielectric film disposed on the first electrode, a multilayer film disposed on the dielectric film, and a second electrode comprising titanium nitride and disposed on the multilayer film. The method for preparing the capacitor includes forming the first electrode comprising titanium nitride on the substrate, forming a dielectric film on the first electrode, forming the multilayer film on the dielectric film, and forming the second electrode comprising titanium nitride on the multilayer film.

A new class of logic gates are presented that use non-linear polar material. The logic gates include multi-input majority gates and threshold gates. Input signals in the form of analog, digital, or combination of them are driven to first terminals of non-ferroelectric capacitors. The second terminals of the non-ferroelectric capacitors are coupled to form a majority node. Majority function of the input signals occurs on this node. The majority node is then coupled to a first terminal of a capacitor comprising non-linear polar material. The second terminal of the capacitor provides the output of the logic gate, which can be driven by any suitable logic gate such as a buffer, inverter, NAND gate, NOR gate, etc. Any suitable logic or analog circuit can drive the output and inputs of the majority logic gate. As such, the majority gate of various embodiments can be combined with existing transistor technologies.